Why Does Nobody Talk About Venus?

It’s one of the brightest things we can see in our sky. That bright "star" above the crescent moon is Venus (first image)! It's particularly bright right now because it's at one of its best evening appearances of 2025. Venus is often called the "Evening Star" or "Morning Star" because it's the brightest natural object in Earth's night sky after the Moon. What you're seeing is a beautiful conjunction between Venus and the Moon. These conjunctions happen relatively often, but they're always a spectacular sight. Venus looks so bright because its thick clouds reflect a lot of sunlight, and it's relatively close to Earth compared to other planets. From where I am in Dallas, this is visible in our southwestern sky after sunset. Maybe nobody talks about it because Venus is literally hell! And I mean that quite literally—it's probably the least hospitable place in our solar system: - **Surface temperature:** 462°C (864°F) - hot enough to melt lead - **Atmospheric pressure:** 90x Earth's - would crush you like being 900m underwater - **Clouds of sulfuric acid rain** that vaporize before reaching the surface - **Volcano-covered surface** - **Spins backwards** compared to other planets - **A day on Venus** is longer than its year Yet it's often called Earth's "sister planet" because it's similar in size and mass. It's a stark warning about runaway greenhouse effects—Venus may have once had oceans and been potentially habitable before something triggered a climate catastrophe. The really mind-bending part? Some scientists think the upper atmosphere of Venus (50-60km up) might actually be one of the most Earth-like environments in our solar system. There's even a concept called the "High Altitude Venus Operational Concept" (HAVOC) for floating cities in Venus's clouds! The truth is, Venus deserves WAY more attention—it could teach us crucial lessons about climate change and planetary evolution. NASA's DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions launching this decade will hopefully put Venus back in the spotlight where it belongs! ### Documentaries and Historical Missions There are several fascinating documentaries about Venus. One of the best recent ones is "Venus: Death of a Planet" from PBS's NOVA series. It does an excellent job explaining Venus's evolution from a potentially habitable world to the hellscape it is today. For a shorter but visually stunning take, I'd highly recommend the "Venus: The Morning Star" episode from BBC's The Planets series narrated by Brian Cox. The CGI visualizations really help grasp the extreme conditions you'd encounter there! If you're into more technical details, "Exploring Venus" from The Planetary Society is excellent, though it's more like a lecture series than a traditional documentary. Fun fact: The Soviet Union's Venera missions were the only ones to ever land on Venus's surface and survive long enough to send back photos—though only for about an hour before being destroyed by the extreme conditions. The documentaries show these rare images, which look like they could be from an alien horror movie!

By Eduarda Ferreira